Directed by Kar Wai Wong, who also co-wrote the screenplay along with Lawrence Block, My Blueberry Nights marks the feature film debut of popular singer and songwriter Norah Jones, who portrays the role of a girl with a broken heart who finds comfort in the blueberry pies baked by small cafe owner (Jude Law) before going on a soul searching trip across the country.

After being mugged in a New York subway and learning her boyfriend is cheating on her, broken hearted Elizabeth (Jones) stumbles into a small cafe and spills her soul to owner Jeremy (Law) over a slice of blueberry pie. She then gets on a bus and travels to Memphis, taking on two waitressing jobs, one during the day and one in the late evening at a bar to keep herself busy. While in Memphis she meets Arnie (David Strathairn), an alcoholic police officer who is having trouble accepting his recent seperation from his flirtatious wife, Sue-Lynn (Rachel Weisz). While on her journey, Elizabeth keeps in touch with Jeremy by sending him postcards, and he begins trying to track her down. Not wanting to stay in one place too long, Elizabeth then moves on and meets a charismatic gambling addict named Leslie (Natalie Portman), who along with all the other offbeat characters she ecounters help her figure out her questions about love and life.

Despite featuring an all-star cast, Blueberry nights is something just on the otherside of boring, and flirts seriously with the idea of becoming a completly horrible and irredeemable film, but manages a few moments, unfortunately very few and far between, that make the movie even somewhat worth watching. First is the plot, well if you can call it that, mostly the movie appears, by what I could tell, to be about nothing. Yes, you can grasp that the Norah Jones character basically snaps after her longterm boyfriend cheats on her and she runs around the country looking for people worse than him to convince her she’s still a good person, but the film just crawls, and I mean crawls along at a snails pace and ultimately gets nowhere in the process. Then there is the non-existent acting ability of Norah Jones herself, who is the main character and the one we’re supposed to be invested in, but who can barely manage an ounze of genuine emotion. I’ve seen people on reality TV with more talent and emotion than Jones could muster in this film, which is sad because she is an amazing songwriter and singer, and I love her music, but she certainly can NOT act.

The rest of the cast has moments, but also mostly seem lost in the script. David Strathairn’s booze-hounding cop comes off as cliche and uninteresting. Rachel Weisz just seems to be screaming all the time and isn’t believable with her cheesy southern accent. Jude Law is barely in the movie, has a few moments of okayness and then mostly seems to struggle with trying to carry Jones thru there supposed tender scenes together. It’s just sad to see this collection of A-list talent and oscar nominees look so lost and confused and…well, bored. You can literally feel the boredom from some of these actors as they read there lines, which makes you wonder if maybe Strathairn really was getting drunk, just to cope with the horrible movie he found himself in. Then, just as you’re ready to give up all hope, the skies clear and the heavens part and lovely Natalie Portman arrives to bring the movie some (and I must stress the word some) redeemable quality. Her character basically sucks as badly as the rest of the them, but Portman seems to try her best to inject some life into it and the film as well, and does better than the rest at carrying Jones thru some scenes.

Overall, the film is horrible and a complete waste of these actor’s talents. I have not seen any of Director Kar Wai Wong’s other films, and this film certainly doesn’t inspire me to do so. Despite some beautifully shot street scenes, Wong just never manages to produce anything compelling or interesting on the screen that makes this film worth watching. Norah Jones should stick to her music, which I have a feeling she won’t have a choice on, and leave the bad movies from singers-turned wannabee actors to Lindsey Lohan and Britney Spears. At least we all knew ahead of time there movies would be horrible.

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